I wasted no time in again taking the offensive
against the German political establishment, which, by repeatedly delaying
ratification of the Franco-German judiciary accord of February 2, 1971, was
consciously perpetuating the impunity of the Nazi criminals who had operated in
France.

I had for a long time been on the trail of Heinrich Biers,
S.S.-Hauptsturmführer, deputy to Kurt Lischka, head of the Nazi police
(S.D.), Paris region. Illers was also head of the Gestapo in Paris. Serge had
accumulated a voluminous dossier on Illers who, on August 24, 1944, personally
made the decision to dispatch from Compiègne a final deportation convoy
from France. The agreement between German General von Choltitz and Swedish
Consul Raoul Nordling prohibiting further deportations had already been
concluded, but Illers ignored this.

Knowing that Illers was a "Herr
Doktor," we were able to locate him as Senatspräsident of the
Landessozialgericht of Lower Saxony, and ... expert in war-victim litigation.

In order to have Illers removed, we had to dramatize our disclosure. We
decided to hold a press conference at Bonn in the restaurant Am Tulpenfeld, in
the press center. On Tuesday morning October 3, 1972, although there was a
warrant for his arrest in Germany, Serge joined Jean Pierre-Bloch and me
in